New to Reselling (Billing Questions)

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Posted by joe-banana, 04-12-2009, 11:00 AM
Hello webhosting talk, Got some question regarding reselling: I want to start my own business, but part time for now and I barely have time to set this up but I have a number of clients asking me to host their site. And Ive realize that I am missing that service as a web developer so decided to get a reseller account(cheap one). So question is: -Is there any hosting reseller like wild west domains, that you do not need to setup your business site, they do it for you. -How about the billing? How should I bill my clients? They are willing to pay advance right now. But I guess I should advertise it a little too so I could get new clients as well but how to bill those new ones. WHCM is a little expensive for $15/month. any other options? Also I decided to go for either resellerzoom, gavvin or catsnine for budget plans they seem more than enough for now, what bothers me is the billing part which i dont know, and it would be a plus that i dont have to setup another site.
Posted by EasycPanelXL, 04-12-2009, 11:24 AM
I would start out with a cheap one myself Upgrade as you need. Domain Reseller are offered free by most companies because it dose not cost them anything to setup a domain reseller, but for it to be branded (built into your billing system) you require an advanced type of billing software. Billing system prices Money, the most popular is WHMCS. WHMCS is a 249 value per year, most reseller providors offer this with there reseller plans, but you wont get this under 24.99/mo It is worth the money trust me, look for a host that includes it free with there reseller plans. Take a look at the Advertising Section on the forums for Reseller Offers, Tons of great deals! Web Hosting Talk : Advertising Forums : Web Hosting Offers : Reseller Hosting Offers
Posted by joe-banana, 04-12-2009, 11:35 AM
Thank you so much for the help. So how do I properly bill them without the said software? I can see most charge $15/month for that software. It's too much right now. Regarding the business website, I was refering to something like this: https://www.wildwestdomains.com/gdsh...3322&app_hdr=0 Are there any reseller providers offering this? Again thank you so much for the inputs!
Posted by EasycPanelXL, 04-12-2009, 11:36 AM
You can try free billing software like PHPcoin which is offered in fantastico by most hosts.
Posted by joe-banana, 04-12-2009, 11:56 AM
Thank you very much EasycPanelXL! so there are free billing softwares out there.. So this billing softwares will automatically charge my clients every month right?
Posted by EasycPanelXL, 04-12-2009, 11:59 AM
Thats paypal that charges your clients auto, you can make it set to subscriptions. The billing software is pretty much to manage your clients, and to show you up coming invoices and to monitor if payment went through or not. The billing is done through your merchant account.
Posted by joe-banana, 04-12-2009, 01:17 PM
very helpful of you easycpanelxl! thank you im looking for free billing software right now.
Posted by mwatkins, 04-12-2009, 01:28 PM
Another word of advice: Your clients want to host you because they trust you. Do not misplace that trust. Good hosting need not necessarily be the most expensive, but frequently the "cheap ones" are cheap for a reason. We see them blow up here literally every week. Surely you will earn more developing solutions for them than you will offering hosting; regardless, if you screw up their hosting they may not be development clients for you any longer. Think long term. Find a provider that really knows what they are doing, and has the equipment and experience and track record you need in order to sleep soundly at night. Avoid, like the plague, hosting providers that believe RAID is "backup".
Posted by EasycPanelXL, 04-12-2009, 01:32 PM
I see you are doing anything in your power to make other companies that offer better deal look bad. What I use and what I recommend is advanced uses replication and synchronization, with point-in-time snap shots, to provide up to the minute data protection of your complete server configuration. This is the best and most advance form of backups. Backup solution that continuously captures your entire system configuration to an off-site facility which allows for up to the minute recovery of your information.
Posted by dotRoot, 04-12-2009, 01:32 PM
Have you thought about just using a webhost's affiliate program instead?
Posted by joe-banana, 04-12-2009, 01:37 PM
thanks for the thought.. you are right.. but currently half of them is hosted at godaddy's lowest plan(since most of them are small businesses and i did recommend this to them before to.) and i have to be close to their price somehow while meeting 20% profit. and i do not have time to find newer clients for now but i am planning to get into this business in the future, thats when ill move to better provider.
Posted by joe-banana, 04-12-2009, 01:38 PM
please do elaborate more.. im listening..
Posted by mwatkins, 04-12-2009, 06:11 PM
Not at all. I would hope that you would agree that selling RAID as "backup" is foolhardy and dangerous. That is the point I made, nothing more.
Posted by dotRoot, 04-12-2009, 07:19 PM
Sorry for the delay. Basically, in an affiliate program, you recommend people to a host that you have an affiliate account with. The people that you recommend click your link (maybe from your website) and sign up for that host. Generally, you either get one flat fee payment to you based on what the customer buys or some offer recurring percentages for the life of that client's account. That way, you don't have to worry about billing, technical support, etc. The down-side is that you have no control over what happens to your clients in regards to the webhosting. So be careful. GoDaddy offers an Affiliate program as well. They generate your website for you and make you look as if you are the webhost (though you'll have no contact with the client for their webhosting yourself) and you are paid a fee. I believe you can sell under what GoDaddy charges and make profit, but you must pay an upfront setup fee per year. Lots of options if you go the Affiliate route and it has its pro's and con's, but it sounds like a perfect fit for you. I'd look around WHT for some good ones. I think most hosts here have some sort of affiliate program and HostGator supposedly has one of the best.
Posted by joe-banana, 04-12-2009, 08:51 PM
Yes sounds like a perfect fit for me, but trouble with this is I wont learn that much compared to me handling it. I am always interested in learning this so one day i can run my own servers. but yes it seems perfect so i have to look into this too, how is the profit compared to just buying plain reseller? less i guess.. Also to be honest, i only have no more than 10 clients which i am not expecting to grow for the next 6 months, will affiliate program still be profitable? cause godaddy cost a $100 deposit i think.
Posted by ldcdc, 04-13-2009, 12:18 PM
There's a difference between an affiliate program and a reseller program though. With a reseller program you usually have your own hosting brand, and can "pretend" to be a host. With an affiliate program you explicitly send people over to a host.
Posted by {wx} JeffH, 04-13-2009, 05:56 PM
IMO if you can't afford $15/month for a billing solution then you shouldn't be getting into web hosting
Posted by joe-banana, 04-15-2009, 10:54 AM
Why is that? Please elaborate. I need very small space, my clients are mostly small businesses so space is not the problem . Hmm.. guess reseller program is more for me.. I wont be selling hosting full time maybe in the future, but now its just for my clients not more than five plus couple of my site.
Posted by ldcdc, 04-15-2009, 01:18 PM
There are hosts that offer it for free with their reseller hosting packages. Try to find such a provider. Chances are you'll have to pay $15+ for the hosting account though. Still, it beats paying for the hosting account and the WHMCS license separately.
Posted by Dustin B Cisneros, 04-15-2009, 01:55 PM
Yea of course because those host just resell whmcs and there hosting cost will be higher than average just because the whmcs. But whmcs is the best way to go.
Posted by ldcdc, 04-15-2009, 04:20 PM
True, but due to the fact that they buy hundreds or thousands of licenses, the price per license gets to be very low, and the savings are passed to the customer.
Posted by andria, 04-18-2009, 06:02 PM
I just wrote a review about the great experience I have had with Crucial P over a year period. http://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=855650 They were also offering WHMCS which I forgot to mention in my review. I just had a look at their site - they include it with every plan and the costs start at 19.95. I hope this helps! Good luck!
Posted by Business Hosting, 04-19-2009, 06:55 PM
Hi Joe, I'd recommend billing customers monthly and also set up some yearly and bi-monthly plans. There are lots of different billing software you can use such as ModernBill which many hosting companies use. Any reason you want them to set up a site for you ? I understand this saves time but you want your website to be unique and even if you mainly resell other companies products you want your own identity. ResellerClub might have what you want. I've never used them though as I resell domains through enom. Good Luck!
Posted by astutiumRob, 04-19-2009, 08:21 PM
Please *dont* do this - hosting is not a "part time" job/hobby, and if you dont have time to set it up, you really aren't going to have time to support it. And aiming at "cheap" reseller accounts is going to get you a "cheap" service - is that what you want for your design clients ? Just do a deal with a local/reputable host and offload the work to people who know what they're doing. If you get one with an affiliate scheme, you might even earn something from it.
Posted by StartYourServer, 04-20-2009, 10:57 AM
You can never go wrong using WHMCS. ModernBill used to be the best, but many of us believe that WHMCS has taken the lead as #1.